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Reviews For: Yaesu FC-40

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Yaesu FC-40
Reviews: 34MSRP: 400.00
Description:
The FC-40 is a microprocessor-controlled antenna
impedance matching network designed to provide
all-amateur-band transmitting capability with the
FT-897/857 Series of transceivers, when used with
an end-fed random wire or long whip antenna.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.vxstd.com/en/news/image/FC-40.pdf
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15343.9
VK7JJ Rating: 2005-04-29
Great at home too! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I agree with the thoughtful review of KA6GEM below, my experience is the same, it is an excellent product.

I would like to add that I found I could significantly extend the usability of the FC-40 by using a simple broadband step-up torroidal transformer which took only 20 minutes to construct (10 quadrifilar turns on a 2 inch torroid). See the ARRL Antenna Handbook or other common texts for details.

I got the idea when I found I could not tune some lengths of longish wire (inevitable of course). I used my MFJ-259B antenna analyser to examine the impedance of the wire at the feedpoint (disconnect the FC-40) and found it was high at around 600 ohms or more when the FC-40 had difficulty.

When the 16x winding on the torroid was connected to the wire, the impedance as measured on the torroid primary was reduced and varied between typically 20 to 300 ohms across all bands.

I found these values tunable by the FC-40 and allowed my wire (approx 120m) to tune from 160m to 10m, with excellent signal reports.

I also experimented with a short vertical on my mobile, using the torroid back to front so as to step the low impedance (3-4 ohms) of the short vertical up to 50+ ohms to feed to the FC-40. That worked a treat as well but of course a short vertical remains a very inefficient antenna.

Two outstanding advantages of the FC-40 are:

1) Removing the effect of the feedline both in regards to loss and unwanted impedance transformations.

2) Instant operation on any band/frequency that you have previously tuned. I can QSY as fast as I can push the buttons on my rig.

73
Phil
VK7JJ
KA6GEM Rating: 2005-04-27
Great for going portable! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I purchased the new Yaesu FC-40 Automatic antenna tuner for my Yaesu FT-897D about three months ago. In brief, I think it is a well-made tuner that installs easily, performs very well and is one of the best antenna options for portable operating. I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more buzz about this remarkable accessory for the popular FT-897. So here are some details about this new tuner for anyone interested.

The Yaesu FC-40 is a fully automatic random wire antenna tuner for the Yaesu FT-897D or FT-857D. It is controlled by the base radio and activated by a single button. Like the Yaesu FC-800 or the Icom AH-4, and similar tuners by SGC, the tuner itself is located outside at the end of the feedline. This design provides greater efficiency than one that tunes the coax as well as the antenna.

The tuner is housed in a heavy-duty plastic box sealed with screws. On the top is a wing nut porcelain post for the random wire and next to it the ground connection. On the bottom are two sleeve protected connection cables: one for the fifteen-foot 8-pin mini-DIN control cable (16 ft. actually) and the other for the fifteen-foot length of 50-ohm coax (also 16 ft.). Both the coax and the mini-DIN cables are supplied with the FC-40.

Stainless steel hardware is included for a variety of different mounting installations. I mounted mine on a 4-foot pipe sunk into the ground and substituted stainless wing nuts for easier install and removal. The installation instructions and hardware that comes with it provide for a set up in either a car, boat or on land. The short 16 ft. control cable should work fine in most cars and many boats, but for portable operation such as at a lakeside cabin, it can pose a serious limitation. I use mine exclusively for going portable or “mountain-topping” (via car!).

Since I wired my shack with the control cable that accompanied the FC-40, I purchased an additional DIN control cable from the parts department of Yaesu and set it aside in my duffle bag for going portable. It is replacement part no. T9101543A and sells for $34.81 plus tax and shipping.

This eight-pin “Mini-DIN” control cable appears to be similar to the Apple Macintosh serial printer cable for their ImageWriter printer but, like most bi-directional printer cables, one or two wires are crossed (pins 6 and 8 for the Apple) making it useless, as I discovered, for the FC-40. However, a Mini-DIN-8 extension cable (such as the ten foot male to female “Cablestogo.com” No. 09569) works very nicely, since the wires and pins are straight through. This kind of extension cord is becoming hard to find as printer cables are now USB. So far, I have extended the control cable to a total of 60 feet with no loss in performance. Yaesu claims that the tuner box is waterproof but I place a thick white plastic bag over it when I’m home as an added precaution. Unlike the Icom AH-4, the control cable and coax connections are made outside the box eliminating the chance for water or dust to gain entry.

The FC-40 instructions from Yaesu offer little advise on either the ground or the length of wire for the antenna. For the ground, I pounded a ½ inch copper pipe about four feet into the earth and left a couple of feet above for a short ground connection. It is often recommended that the ground connection be of significantly greater mass than the wire used for the antenna so I used a one half inch wide braid grounding wire (not supplied). There is no mention of ground radials in the instructions and so far I haven’t found the need for anything other than a good earth ground. But I should add that my ground conditions this Spring, after a wet winter, are as close to perfect as I have ever seen.

Once everything was properly installed, I changed the default settings on Menus #20 and #85 on the FT-897D as outlined in the instructions and began by touching “TUNE” or the “A” button on display “k”. The red transmit light came on and within just a few seconds, the match was complete. Very nice! The label TUNR appears just below the 13.8V label on the radio’s display when connected. It changes to lower case “tunr” when outside the ham bands. It changes to WAIT while the FC-40 is attempting to find a match. It also changes to “WAIT” when dialing from one frequency to another in the same band, suggesting that it is maintaining a tune as you go. However this doesn’t appear to be true because when I operated some distance away, the SWR jumped so I touched the TUNE button again.

The length of antenna wire is very important. The FC-40 will tune 160 through 6 meters as Yaesu claims but it is entirely dependant on the length of the wire. Based on my findings, it will not tune a half-wave, a fairly common limitation of “random wire” antenna tuners, and there doesn’t appear to be a single length that is ideal for ALL bands, although 37 feet, in my experience, comes pretty close. One nice thing is that it is very easy to change your antenna length: just add or subtract a few feet and that’s it! I have found that inserting a insulator at about 50 feet and leaving the ends of the wires on each side stripped allows the option of simply connecting them or disconnecting them to work the 160 meter band or perhaps the 60 meter band, etc.

I tried various lengths of wire from about 30 feet to about 130 feet, the upper limit at my QTH. At 37 feet, I could tune up on almost every band but the signal reports for the longer wavelength bands (80, 60, 40 etc.) were marginal. As I increased the length of wire, I gained better performance on one band but lost on others. At about 85 feet, I received excellent reports on 40 meters, but then I could not tune on the 80 meter band as the length was too close to a half wave.

I ran a series of comparisons with two dipoles, one for 80 meters and the other for 40 meters. The 80 meter dipole performed better by one or two “S” units than the FC-40 with a 65 foot quarter wave wire. I don’t have enough real estate to extend the wire to a three quarter wave or about 190 feet for the 80 meter band.

On the 40 meter band, however, a length of about 90 feet performed very well and the signal reports tended to be an “S” unit higher than the 40 meter dipole. Although it’s a vertically polarized antenna, I have not noticed any major increase in noise with the FC-40 random wire as compared to a dipole.

Unlike the Icom AH-4, the Yaesu FC-40 will tune on 160 meters and I made my first contact on the top band in almost 15 years with a wire about 85 feet long. I had nothing to compare it to but the signal report I got was excellent.

Although still fairly new, I have heard two other FC-40s on the air, mostly in mobile set ups and both operators seemed very pleased with their performance. In summary, I’m very pleased with this new automatic antenna tuner. I’d give the Yaesu FC-40 a solid “5” (on a 5 scale) without hesitation.

73,
Paul
KA6GEM

KB6G Rating: 2005-04-24
works great on mobile whip/hamsticks Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought FC-40 3 weeks ago and installed it on a cutting board on roof of small SUV. Ran 5 inch 10 gage wire to Shakespeare marine mount, also on cutting board, and velcroed board to roof rack. Also attached 1 inch copper brain ground strap to bolt holding down roof rack to car roof. Tunes great! I use 102 inch stainless whip on 10-20 meters and have worked across country. Use hamstick on 40 and also works great there. whip is 2-3 S units lower on 40. Tunes "seamlessly" with 857D radio. Contacts cannot believe I am mobile station. Tunes every time flawlessly. Trick is to keep feed line short, since it also radiates, and have good ground.
VA2DV Rating: 2005-01-19
Perfect for less than ideal antennas Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I only have my FC-40 since last week but i've been able to test it with a lot of antennas including longwires,attic dipole,loops and a whip.Overall,the tuner works very well.There is always a length that will not load up but with some prunning,you should be able to get a perfect match on any bands.In my case,a 60' end-fed wire
fed against ground is my winner.I can work all-band 10m-160m.It's not a good manual ATU with wide tuning range but it is perfect for less than optimal situations when you dont have enough
space for full-size antenna.For thoses who are in
heavily restricted locations,this is a good investment.Mine has been working in my attic for 1 week at -20 celcius without any problems.
This tuner works with the FT-857/897 series but
i suppose an interface could be built for other models/brands.
Overall,a nice product,less expensive that competition and very useful in most situation.
I will probably try it this summer with my kite antenna.